Re: Continuation of weight gain/supply struggle

Today is Day 4 of no supplements.

What I'm pumping now I'm Freezing for a stash finally.

I'm getting a bit frustrated that DS doesn't seem to want to take many big meals which makes it nearly impossible to feed him enough in a 24 hour period.
For him a BIG meal seems to be 2.8 oz. That might happen 2-4 times in 24 hours. The rest of the meals are like 1-1.8 oz and then there are snacks or when he is just nursing to go to sleep when it seems he might only take .3-.7 oz.
Yesterday's added up total was only 17 oz!!!!
And weight gain is stagnant which means when he poops we will loose weight at this rate.

I'm starting to wonder if we are having a reflux issue (He does tend to spit up after at least half of his feedings if not most.)
Or if there might be an iron deficiency causing a lack of apatite.

He is alert and happy and doesn't seem to be hungry or upset or in pain most of the time (he does get fussy and seems to be having teething pain sometimes, usually in the evenings when he is also fighting sleep.) So I'll hang in there and give it a week as long as we don't start loosing weight before I get really worried.

Re: Continuation of weight gain/supply struggle

Have you ever discussed reflux or iron levels with a Paed? I would have thought they would have checked iron levels if they were concerned with weight gain :s

When I went to the Dr concerned with weight gain all they seemed to want to do was push me to bottle feed formula instead of trying to find cause.

I still haven't figured out how to find a new pediatrician who is actually really supportive of breastfeeding (because of course they will all say they support breastfeeding) but you don't find out the truth till you see them a couple times and I can only change Dr once a month according to insurance because of billing.

So, I'm basically feeling kinda on my own when it comes to medical issues since the Dr offices seem to be blaming me for the poor weight gain (listing it as breastfeeding mismanagement instead of helping me figure out what the cause of the poor milk transfer was.)

I'm planing to switch Doctors again here before his 6 month appointment
Hopefully the Dr I'm hoping to switch to will take our insurance plan since I'm not sure if I can change plans that easily (Medicaid.)

Today has been weird.
He pooped a little last night (a couple days ahead of his normal once a week schedule) but it was a thicker/stickier paste than normal, I almost feel like saying he is constipated but it wasn't formed or like pellets but definitely had less moisture in it than normal. He pooped again today, still not as much as his normal weekly blow out and it was again very sticky thick paste (think cool peanut Butter.) But he Pees A LOT. I know most babies will have lots of wet diapers and that is normal but I would expect that if my LO was dehydrated or if constipation was because of dehydration that he wouldn't be having 8 or more 1-4 oz Wets (since I've been doing the weigh/feed/weigh I also know how much he is dropping when I change a diaper and some of them are 3 and 4 ounces and almost never less than 1 oz.)

Anyway, this afternoon he has been hard to get him to nurse, and then when he does he falls to sleep. I haven't gotten too much into him this afternoon. Then he wakes up a short time after I put him down screaming like he is in pain. I've gotten him to burp some and nurse a little more and he falls to sleep again. I haven't gotten him to take a large (2+ oz) feeding this afternoon yet. Normally when he gets a large for him feeding he will spit up a bit. I'm actually feeling a bit worried about him this afternoon but so far today I've managed to get him to eat more than yesterday or the day before.

Re: Continuation of weight gain/supply struggle

Well he seems to be feeling better now and he took a total of just over 23 oz over the past 24 hours and his weight is up over what it was the day before yesterday by more than an ounce so my growing concern has subsided a bit.

Re: Continuation of weight gain/supply struggle

Does anyone know of anything that would cause less frequent poops when baby is given expressed breast milk?

I've stopped supplementing several days ago and been just breastfeeding frequently. We had some odd poops the past couple days and today we had a wet blow out.
This may just be resolution of the odd poops of the past couple days but I'm wondering if we are actually seeing the start of a "new normal"

When he was being supplemented I noticed way back when that he seemed to go longer between poops when he got formula and poops were a little more frequent with 100% breastmilk supplements but still normally 5-7 days between poops. For the month before cutting out the supplements it was about 6-8 days between poops but we have been 100% breastmilk.

Now we are on the 6th day of Exclusive breastfeeding and we have had three poops in two days. A couple of them were dry and weird but then again there were a couple days where I really don't feel like he ate enough but I couldn't get him to eat more. The fewest number of wet diapers I changed was 9 and most were very wet so even though I don't think he ate enough he obviously is still getting enough fluids to be able to flush out so much.

I am so happy to still have the nursing mommy super power though because I just experienced our first fall down boo boo with crying that nursing was able to sooth. (He is learning to pull himself up to standing... is that normal at only 5 1/2 months?)

Re: Continuation of weight gain/supply struggle

Well, went without supplements for over a week and weight gain is NOT good. Only 2.2 oz for the week. So he is still gaining but way slow.
This is really frustrating though because there is still milk there for him after pretty much EVERY FEEDING but he is just done eating and I can't get him to latch back on anymore. I've been feeding like 15+ times per day (basically hourly during the day and co sleeping/feeding almost all night.)

A big feeding for him is anything over 2 oz.
Most of the daytime feeds are between .7 and 1.8 oz which is not enough.

I'm wanting to get his Iron level checked to see if I should be giving him Iron drops or something but I'm afraid to go back to the Pediatrician since I'm not following his orders to feed him formula by bottle as much as I can get him to take after each nursing session.

The Pediatrician I want to switch to doesn't take our insurance And I probably can't change plans at this point.

Does anyone know if I can go into the WIC office to get his Iron level checked? I know they checked mine while I was pregnant and I've seen infants and toddlers come out of the office with band aids. Since I'm EBF according to their records they have not checked him either of the times I was in the office after he was born but I'm starting to seek alternatives since simply switching pediatricians again randomly seems silly but I don't know how to choose another of the ones listed with my insurance.